


Bittersweet

by revise_leviathan



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, not really shippy tbh just assholes getting coffee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3812608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revise_leviathan/pseuds/revise_leviathan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back in the less good old days, coffee was a utility, a commodity, and nothing much else for Shun. Reiji prefers the finer points of it, though, and he's dragging Shun with him whether he likes it or not.</p>
<p>Response to the Arc-V 30 Day Challenge Day 24: Coffee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bittersweet

**Author's Note:**

> I did not expect to be writing so many tiny fics for this challenge and I really should have just made a big work for all of them, but it's a bit late for that now. Enjoy some coffee nerds instead.

The first time Akaba Reiji asks him out for coffee, Shun looks at him like he just grew five extra arms and a third eye. Akaba isn’t the sort to let little details like that get in his way, though, and he merely gives a cool smile to Shun’s neutral incredulity.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t had coffee before.”

And doesn’t that just show how little Akaba knows, Shun thinks. Tins of crappy instant brews were easy to steal, easier to carry, and the best thing they could get hold of to stave off sleep on long watch nights, so if anything Shun should be sick of coffee by this point since the Resistance practically lived off the stuff. It _has_ been a while, though, and despite himself he finds an odd craving bubbling up into his stomach.

“I’ve probably had more of it than you.”

Akaba takes that as some sort of assent, apparently, because he merely gives a quiet huff of laughter before turning and leading the way, not even looking back to see if Shun’s following. At this stage, he doesn’t really need to, and it pisses Shun off to no end even as he convinces himself it would be petulant and childish of him to do otherwise just to make a point.

Akaba orders some fancy designer ‘coffee’, but it’s with a look that says he’s probably doing it specifically to wrong-foot Shun, who takes the hardest, bitterest thing they have. The scent from whatever the hell Akaba’s drinking threatens to make him vomit as they sit down in a cramped little booth decked out in white and brown, but Shun swallows the feeling like cheap painkillers and downs most of his own drink in one. Time to draw out the process isn’t a luxury he’s used to having, and he’s not getting into the habit now.

Akaba, of course, savours each mouthful as if he’ll never taste it again, and now Shun _knows_ he’s doing it just to piss him off. There’s a certain glint Akaba’s eyes take on when that happens, and it’s one Shun’s getting very used to seeing. If only this asshole wasn’t the best ally he had in Standard that wasn’t already dead.

“Something on your mind, Kurosaki?”

It’s a casual taunt of sorts, and Akaba looks like he doesn’t even expect an answer. Shun eyes him for a second over the last quarter of his drink before he sets the mug down, leans forward, and replies.

“Only how much the Resistance would have laughed at that watered-down trash you’re calling ‘coffee’.”

All that gets him is an indulging half-smile of the sort one might give to a precocious child, and Shun swears Akaba needs to start appreciating the self-control it takes not to leap across the table and throttle him sometimes.

“For now, Kurosaki, we are not at war. Enjoy some civilian niceties while they last.”

Shun’s dismissive snort is answer enough to that, he thinks, even if Akaba’s expression doesn’t change.

“Why should I? Keep them for the _civilians_.”

A sigh, and Akaba reaches over to deliberately place the last of his drink right under Shun’s nose.

“We were all civilians once. Would it kill you to play at being one again?”

There’s a brief silence, but before long, hesitant fingers reach out to snag the cup. Civilians again, huh?

The drink is sweet, and the colours dance on Shun’s tongue long after he finishes.


End file.
